I must have been around 17 or 18 years old at the time and was a regular in The Grotto on Saturday nights. I was in there with a couple of mates and their girlfriends and my girlfriend. In comes this guy with his mate and what I took to be their wives. The four of them pushed onto our table and one of their wives started to s**g off one of my mates girlfriend. One thing led to another and this guy sticks his nose over the table and starts gobbing off about who he is ! I didnt know him from Adam but he was shouting off that he was "God of South Shields" and that if he ever saw any of us again he would sort us out ! The barman was a good mate of mine and I asked him who this geezer was ? He replied that it was fazal deen. Things quietened down when one of the Marsden Lads intervened and put Mr. deen right on a few things. I know you cannot blame relatives for members of their clan but deen was out of order and a complete tosser ! I found out later that he had had quite a few hammerings around Shields which were fully deserved.

cheers.

gag.

You can take the lad out of Shields, but you cannot take Shields out of the lad !!!!!!!!!!!

No Pilot it was Fazal Deen. As I said his dad was Pakistani. Some people used to pronounce it Vassal. He married a woman I knew second wife) and their son was called Fazal as well. Think he died quite young too.

I think you are talking about my grampy Bruce? He was born on the 5/8/34 in South Shields, his full name was Donald Bruce Allison. He was quite tall with black curly hair, he had a brother called Bobby Allison. He used to go to the grotto to drink also. He joined the RN and became chief engineer in the Merchant Navy. He was definitely a lady's man and had a big ego! He married my nan, who is welsh and brought up her 3 sons up as his own and also had my mum in 1966. He lived in Cheltenham when I was born in 1989 and lived there for many yrs until 2001 when they moved to Yorkshire with us. He sadly died in 2002. He was an amazing man to me and was there for me when my dad wasn't! We scattered his ashes over the cliff next to the grotto if anyone would like to pay their respects. I know this forum was discussed in 2009 but I hope anyone who wished to know what happened to him can still read this!
Thanks for your time.
Jaye x